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siderable share in the composition of the work. At the beginning of St. Augustine's life we find this note: "These 24 pages of St. Augustine's life were thus begun by George Acworth Dr. of laws, at the appointment of Matthew Parker Abp of Cant. and the lives of all the archbishops should have in this course been perfected — (some words not intelligible)—but deth prevented it." This Dr. Ackworth, as we have mentioned in our account of him (vol. 1) was alive in 1576, but how long after is not known, but as this is a year after our prelate's death, there seems some difficulty in understanding the latter part of this note, without adopting archbishop Usher's opinion above mentioned. We also find in the Lambeth copy, on the title-page of the history, the following note: "This Historie was collected and penned by John Josselyn, one of the sons of sir Thomas Josselyn, knight, by the appointment and oversight of Matthew Parker archbishop of Cant. the said John being entertained in the said archb. house, as one of his antiquaries, to whom, besides the allowance afforded to him in his howse, he gave to hym the parsonage of Hollinborn in Kent," &c.

It seems probable therefore that Parker planned this work, and supplied his assistants with materials from his own collections respecting ecclesiastical antiquities. It was printed probably at Lambeth, where the archbishop had an establishment of printers, engravers, and illuminators, in a folio volume, in 1572. The number of copies printed appears to have been very small, some think not more than four or five, for private distribution; but this must be a mistake; for Dr. Drake mentions his having consulted twenty-one copies, most of which, he adds, were imperfect. The copies extant, however, in a perfect state, are very few: Strype mentions only five, and one of these, which he calls the choicest of all, belonged to archbishop Sancroft, came afterwards into the hands of Mr. Wharton, and appears to be the one now at Lambeth. There is a very fine copy in the British Museum, bound in green velvet embroidered, which appears to have been the presentation-copy to queen Elizabeth. A bad edition of the work was published at Hanover in 1605; and a very elegant one by Dr. Drake in 1729, folio. In 1574, a short life of archbishop Parker was published abroad, most probably by one of his enemies among the puritans, under the title "The Life of the 70 Arch

bishopp of Canterbury, presently settinge. Englished, and to be added to the 69 lately sett forth in Latin. This number of seventy is so complete a number as it is great pitie ther should be one more: but that as Augustin was the first, so Matthew might be the last." Of this scurrilous publication an account may be seen in the "Restituta," vol. I.

To the university of Cambridge, and particularly to his own college, he was a most munificent benefactor, founding, at his own expence, many fellowships and scholarships. He was also the founder of the first Society of Antiquaries, over which he presided during his life, and in this office was succeeded by archbishop Whitgift. He had the taste and spirit of an antiquary from his earliest years, and employed his interest, when he rose in the world, as well as his fortune, in accumulating collections, or transcripts of manuscripts, from the dissolved monasteries. In his library is a letter from the privy-council, dated July 1568, signifying the queen's pleasure, that the archbishop, or his deputies, should be permitted to peruse all the records of the suppressed houses. The greatest favour, therefore, which he conferred on literature, was the invaluable collection of MSS. and printed books which he gave to his college, and which is there still preserved. Fuller styled this collection "the Sun of English Antiquity, before it was eclipsed by that of sir Robert Cotton," and justly, as it contained more materials, relating to the civil and ecclesiastical history of this kingdom, than had ever been collected. The manuscripts are of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Some are as old as the tenth, ninth, and eighth. They relate to the writings of the fathers and school-divinity, to civil and ecclesiastical matters, to the concerns of various religious houses, of the university, &c. Many of them are in the old Saxon character, and they are all well described in Nasmith's Catalogue. A copy of his will is preserved in the College-library, as are two pictures of him in oil, with a beautiful one in water-colours, taken in the seventieth year of his age, at the end of the college-statutes. His only surviving son, John, was knighted in 1603, and died in 1618, but there is nothing remarkable in his history; and the family is now thought to be extinct.1

↑ Strype's Life.-Masters's Hist. of C. C. C. C.—Biog. Brit. a very super.

PARKER (ROBERT), was a puritan divine of considerable learning and reading, but his early history is very variously represented. Mr. Brook, in his late "Lives of the Puritans," places him as rector of North- Benflete, in Essex, in 1571, on the authority of Newcourt, but Newcourt is evidently speaking of a Robert Parker, who held Bardfield-parva in 1559, and must have been a different person. On the other hand, Mr. Masters, in his History of C. C. C. C. informs us that he was in 1581 a pensioner of Bene't college, Cambridge, and was made scholar of the house in 1583, at which time he published a copy of Latin verses on the death of sir William Buttes, and succeeded to a fellowship in the latter end of the year following. He was then A. B. but commenced A. M. in 1585, and left the university in 1589. Both his biographers agree that the person they speak of was beneficed afterwards at Wilton, in Wiltshire, and the author of "A scholastical Discourse against symbolizing with Anti-christ in ceremonies, especially in the sign of the Cross," printed in 1607, without a printer's name, consisting of near 400 pages closely printed in folio. In this he appears to have employed very extensive reading to very little purpose, according to Dr. Grey; and even Mr. Pierce, in his "Vindication of the Dissenters," owns that "his fancy was somewhat odd as to his manner of handling his argument." It contained at the same time matter so very offensive, that a proclamation was issued for apprehending the author, who, after many narrow escapes, was enabled to take refuge in Holland. Here some of his biographers inform us that he was chosen minister of the English church at Amsterdam; but the magistrates of the city, being unwilling to disoblige the king of England by continuing him their pastor, he removed to Doesburgh, where he became chaplain to the garrison. Others tell us that he would have been chosen pastor to the English church at Amsterdam, had not the magistrates been afraid of disobliging king James. According to Mr. Brook, it would appear that he had published his work "De Descensu" before he left England, but we can more safely rely on Mr. Masters, who had seen the book, and who informs us that it was while he was at Amsterdam that he published a treatise, "De Descensu

ficial article.-Le Neve's Protestant Bishops.-Burnet's Hist. of the Reforma. tion. MS Letter of Dr. Ducarel's, &c. &c. See also various curious particulars in Lysous's Environs, the History of Lambeth, &c.

domini nostri Jesu Christi ad Inferos," 4to, which had been begun by his learned friend Hugh Sandford, who finding death approaching, committed the perfecting of it to him. This he was about to do when compelled to leave England. His preface is dated Amsterdam, Dec. 30, 1611. He was also the author of a treatise "De Politia Ecclesiastica Christi et Hierarchica opposita," published in 1616, at which time he had been dead two years. He is indeed here represented "as an eminent servant of Christ, called home to rest from his labours in the midst of his course." The Bodleian catalogue assigns to him two other posthumous works, "A Discourse concerning Puritans," 1641, 4to, and "The Mystery of the Vials opened in the 16th chapter of the Revelations." He left a son, Thomas, author of a work called "Methodus gratiæ divinæ in traductione hominis peccatoris ad vitam," Lond. 1657, 8vo, which the editor considered as a work of importance by the care he took to collate four MS copies. Brook says he wrote also "Meditations on the Prophecy of Daniel," and died in 1677, in New England, to which he went in 1634, to avoid the consequences of nonconformity at home.1

PARKER (SAMUEL), a man of some learning, and no contemptible writer, but of despicable character, was born in Sept. 1640, at Northampton, where his father, John Parker, then practised the law. John had been bred to that profession in one of the Temples at London, and inclining to the parliament against the king, was preferred to be a member of the high court of justice in 1649, in which office he gave sentence against the three lords, Capel, Holland, and Hamilton, who were beheaded. During Oliver's usurpation he was made an assistant committeeman for his county. In 1650, he published a book in defence of the new government, as a commonwealth, without a king or house of lords, entitled "The Government of the People of England, precedent and present," with an emblematical engraved title-page. In June 1655, when Cromwell was declared protector, he was appointed one of the commissioners for removing obstructions at Worcesterhouse, in the Strand, near London, and was sworn serjeant at law next day. In Jan. 1659, he was appointed by the rump-parliament one of the barons of the exchequer; but,

1 Master's Hist. of C. C. C. C.-Brook's Lives of the Puritans.-Neal's Pu ritans, with Grey's Examination, vol. I.

upon a complaint against him, was soon after displaced. His character, however, appears to have been such, that he was again made regularly serjeant at law, by the recommendation of chancellor Hyde, at the first call after the return of Charles II.

At

His son, Samuel, the subject of the present article, was educated among the Puritans at Northampton; whence, when prepared for the university, he was sent to Wadhamcollege in Oxford, and admitted, in 1659, under a presbyterian tutor. While here he affected to lead a strict and religious life, entered into a weekly society, then called the gruellers, because their chief diet was water-gruel; and it was observed" that he put more graves into his porridge than all the rest." This society met at a house in Holywell, where he was so zealous and constant an attendant upon prayers, sermons, and sacraments, that he was esteemed one of the most valuable young men in the university. He took the degree B. A. Feb. 28, 1660. the time of the restoration he was a violent independent, and as for some time he continued to rail against episcopacy, he was much discountenanced by the new warden, Dr. Blandford. Upon this he removed to Trinity college, where, by the advice of Dr. Ralph Bathurst, then a senior fellow of that society, he was induced to change his opinions, and became as violent against the nonconformists as he had ever been for them. He afterwards thanked Dr. Bathurst for having restored him "from the chains and fetters of an unhappy education." He now proceeded M. A. in 1663, and having taken orders, resorted frequently to London, and became chaplain to a nobleman, whom he amused by his humourous sallies at the expence of his old friends the presbyterians, independents, &c. Mason was never more mistaken than when in his "Ode to Independence" he mentions him by the epithet "mitred dullness." Parker was undoubtedly a man of wit, and although Marvell was his match, yet the success of the latter was not a little owing to his having the best cause.

In 1665 he was elected a fellow of the royal society, and published about the same time some physico-theological essays, in Latin, with the title "Tentamina Physico-Theologica de Deo; sive Theologia Scholastica, ad normam novæ et reformatæ philosophiæ concinnata," Lond. 1665, 4to. This he dedicated to archbishop Sheldon. The work was attacked by N. Fairfax, M. D. in a treatise with the

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